The Gilded Age Revisited: Property from a Distinguished American Collection

The Gilded Age Revisited: Property from a Distinguished American Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 736. A CHINESE EXPORT ARMORIAL PLATE, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1743.

A CHINESE EXPORT ARMORIAL PLATE, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1743

Auction Closed

February 2, 06:45 PM GMT

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A CHINESE EXPORT ARMORIAL PLATE, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1743


lavishly painted in the center with the arms of Okeover quartering Byrmingham (probably) and Leake and impaling Nichol, flanked and supported by a pair of hippocampi and pennants, the rim elaborately decorated with four rococo cartouches, either inscribed with the LMO monogram or painted with a dragon crest above a crown

diameter 9 in.; 22.9 cm

Elaborately decorated, the Leake Okeover service is considered one of the greatest examples of Chinese export armorial services produced. The opulent service was made for Leake Okeover (1702-65), who married his wife Mary Nichol about 1730, but who died without heirs. His estate was passed on to his cousin, whose descendant, Sir Ian Walker-Okeover, Bt. sold around a hundred pieces of the service in March 1975. The original painted design for the arms is the only recorded example for a complete armorial service known to survive, and still remains with the family. Illustrated in David S. Howard, A Tale of Three Cities: Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong, London, 1997, p. 57, cat nos. 53 (original pattern) and 54 (an example from the service).


Sixteen plates of various size from this service, previously in the collection of James F. Scott, were sold in these rooms, October 15, 2018, lots 223-232.